


Byleth is Crying

by MercurialArchivist



Category: Fire Emblem: Fuukasetsugetsu | Fire Emblem: Three Houses
Genre: F/F, Female Byleth, First Loves, and was so bad at dealing with it, characters having emotions and not knowing how to deal with them, even if only silently, friends being there for each other, i decided byleth had a crush on edelgard, largely based on my first playthrough, second loves, she went to war instead, whoops
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-02-17
Updated: 2020-02-17
Packaged: 2021-02-28 02:48:54
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 848
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22776670
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MercurialArchivist/pseuds/MercurialArchivist
Summary: Byleth didn't cry when she was born, but once she learned, she proved to be pretty good at it.
Relationships: Dorothea Arnault/My Unit | Byleth, Edelgard von Hresvelg/My Unit | Byleth
Comments: 4
Kudos: 47





	Byleth is Crying

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Runeless](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Runeless/gifts).



> If you've got the time, I'd love some feedback.
> 
> Dedicated to Runeless, because I follow them from fandom to fandom, as they are my own personal pied piper and I am but a simple rat, dancing along behind.

When Jeralt dies is the first time Byleth cries, as he acknowledges, and for him it makes his own passing bittersweet. After all, his daughter has never cried or been able to before, and he sheds tears for him now. What more can a father ask for? He dies with a rueful smile.

Byleth watches him go with salt on her cheeks in a stunned fury. This level of feeling, of emotion of sheer raw _anger_ has never been part of her life, and she never wants to experience it again.  


(and, dear reader, can you really blame her? sadness is a part of life, but was not before now a part of hers.)

Everyone knows about it, this first time, and Byleth hates this more than anything. The outpouring of sympathy she never asked for, the worried murmurs they think she can't hear when she leaves her room. From those in her house, she understands it, but from the other two, she almost hates them for it.

____

The next time Byleth cries, no one sees. It's a private thing, alone in her room, the door locked. There is only one thought in her mind.

"Edelgard betrayed me."

After a year of teaching a class that she'd only really offered to because she had quickly developed what she would eventually be told was a "crush" on the white haired house leader, Byleth was almost certain that even if Jeralt had been taken from her, at least she had her house. At least she had the first person she loved near.

(the course of love never did run smooth, and anyone who says that a first love is simple or, gods forbid, easy is a liar. Dear reader, love is work.)

Maybe she had waited too long to tell her. Maybe she should have, could have said anything. Maybe she should have talked to her before she left.

Maybe... Maybe Edelgard would have taken her along.

But there isn't time for maybe's and what if's, and even Byleth knows this. She tried to talk to her student, in the tombs, ask her what she was doing, and what she got for her trouble was an axe swinging towards her face, and maybe tears in blue eyes behind it.

Her backup caught up soon enough, Ferdinand sprinting forward with his lance, a mighty thrust carrying him forward. Byleth can't bring herself to swing her sword, and so Ferdinand takes up command as smoothly as if it was planned, and while the rest of the house holds off the soldiers, he and Bernadetta drive off Edelgard.

Byleth's eyes were stinging even then, but she always was a quick study. She holds it in until she's alone.

____

Byleth cries for the third time when her students return after what has, apparently, been five years. But here they are, rallying to her side to help her once again, and it's almost like they were never gone. The thieves gone, everyone crowds around her, and she breaks down.

She's never felt this many emotions at once.

____

She swears that the fourth time she cries will be the last. She is standing in front of a throne, and the figure in red on the ground before her is still. It is, after all, difficult to stand and fight and yell and command and confuse young women with a sword through your gut and a lance in your shoulder.

While her suboordinates clean up behind her, wiping out the demoralized troops, she kneels, and brushes Edelgards eyes closed, tears streaming down her face and an apology on her lips. The only one to see is Bernadetta, who says nothing and pretends not to notice.

(she had almost missed it, and when she did see, almost said something, but that old enemy anxiety snuck up behind her and robbed her of words, and by the time it occurred to her to say something, it was all over.)

By the time everyone regroups behind her, her eyes are dry, if a bit red, and no one says a thing. The return to the academy is solemn, only Ferdinand and Lindhart brave enough or fool enough to break the silence, and even then not for long.

____

The fifth time she cries is the first time she understands that tears can be happy. The war is over. It's been won. Those who slither in the dark are gone. Rhea has been slain, and though that is sad, Byleth herself never really viewed her as anything more than a distant authority.

She is with Dorothea when the tears come, and Dorothea says to stop crying or *she* will start crying and the ring on her finger is so bright and now they're both crying and falling against each other and then somehow there are lips on hers that taste of salt and sweet and they melt to the ground together, holding each other tight and crying and smiling.

Byleth thinks Jeralt would be proud of her choice. And be proud of her for finding her own happiness.


End file.
